The bright ideas of five school students and the most successful product launch ever by Whittaker's has led to a massive windfall for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.

Whittaker's presented a cheque for just over $70,000 to the foundation's chief executive, Van Henderson, at the Elsdon factory last week, with the Samuel Marsden Collegiate Karori students looking proudly on. Earlier this year, as part of a Young Enterprise project, they came up with the idea of pink chocolate to raise money for breast cancer.

Their pitch to Whittaker's was so convincing that the chocolate- maker adopted their idea, developed a white raspberry chocolate block, and pledged to donate 20 cents for every block sold during October, Breast Cancer Month.

Whittaker's brand manager Holly Whittaker said although they pledged to raise $25,000, the company was making a larger- than-expected donation because of the success of the product. They wanted to contribute to a worthy cause and celebrate the students' idea.

"The response has been incredible. We think people have been really treating themselves or their loved ones to white raspberry chocolate knowing that they are supporting the Breast Cancer Foundation at the same time.

"It's been a delight to work with the students, we're very pleased to be supporting tomorrow's business leaders."

One of the five, Claudia Beaumont, told Kapi-Mana News the exercise was an excellent learning experience, working with the different organisations to deliver a product.

"We tripled our own expectations [money raised] and it was awesome to get that end result and raise awareness for breast cancer."